God's Presence IS the Blessing

Psalm 23:4 - "I will fear no evil; for You are with me."

God made a way at this table to literally bring you His presence.  During communion you encounter God’s grace, He accepts you in spite of your sin.  His holiness, convicting you of the same.  His provision, feeding you.  His power and life encourage and strengthen you.  This is His kingdom.  

When we were dead in a ditch, He revived us, bathed us, clothed us, fed us, reoriented us to love and follow the truth.

To be a priest in God’s kingdom to others, you have to first receive the presence of God through Christ.  Your commission can only come after that.

So live the story now, welcoming God’s kingdom with your faith, gratitude, and obedience to the king.

3/27/21

Only One Approach to God

Isaiah 6:1-5
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said:
    “Woe is me, for I am undone!
    Because I am a man of unclean lips,
    And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
    For my eyes have seen the King,
    The LORD of hosts.”

What does it mean for God to be holy?  He is completely pure, such that we cannot approach Him.  Too often in our minds, we try to pretend that we are pure enough to draw near to God.

But we aren’t.  

Our zealous intentions, our good behavior, do not atone for our sins.

There is only one reason why we can gather before Him, seeking God’s presence and blessing, and that is Jesus Christ.  No one, nothing else can bridge the holiness gap between us and God.

But Jesus has done it, so

 

This reminds us of our need to confess our sins.

The Table Shows the Story

Revelation 19:6-9
“Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” 

God shows us at this table all 3 chapters of God's big redemptive story.

1. He made all things and provides for us.

2. When we break bread, it shows the ripping apart of our fellowship from God, in the Fall.

3. The bread and wine show the finished sacrifice of Christ for us - our Redemption.

4. Last chapter – consummation.  The wedding supper of the Lamb is coming – that’s where you’re headed, and this table shows it forth, too. 

So live the story now, welcoming God’s kingdom with your faith, gratitude, and obedience to the king. 

Then come, and welcome…

3/21/22

How the Kingdom Comes

Matthew 6:9-15

"Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

Two things about this:

One, the kingdom of God comes when we do God’s will.  When we don’t do what God wants, we expand Satan’s kingdom.  We tend to think we have our own kingdom, but that’s a pipe dream.  As Bob Dylan said, you gotta serve somebody.  Do God’s will, and you usher in God’s kingdom another inch at a time.

Second,  JC emphasizes after giving us the Lord’s Prayer, that forgiving others is a huge piece of doing God’s will.  It’s the only line of the prayer He comments on, and it’s the most convicting one, when we really think about it.  When we think of obeying God, we tend to think about self-denial, and Lent-y kinds of things.  Don’t swear, be more reverent, more serious, don’t eat or drink too much.  

But a key piece of self-denial is how we treat others: admitting when we are wrong, and forgiving others for their offenses against us.  That is key to true spiritual self-denial.  It’s like Jonah waiting for God to punish Nineveh.  If you are demanding vindication and justice against your enemies, if you are indulging your anger or grievance, if you are obsessed with how others have offended you, instead of wishing them to change and be blessed by God, you are far from the kingdom of God.

This reminds us of our need to confess our sins.

3/21/22

Cultivating Fruit to Oppose Evil

 Gal 5:22-25

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires”

 

A wise man once said, the best way to resist the devil, is to cultivate the virtues opposite to what he wants you to do.  Instead of direct opposition or defiance, practice charity, gentleness, self-control, joy.  We do this here at the Lord’s table.  A central practice to the Christian life, is to receive blessing from God with gratitude.  If you see and appreciate God’s grace to you in Christ at the cross, if you look around here, and you appreciate that the Spirit is working to draw us into union with Christ, and with one another, when we are truly thankful for that, it is one of the best bulwarks against the attacks of our adversary.

 

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

3/6/2022

40 Days to Remember His Humbling

1 Kings 19:1-8

Elijah did the right thing on Mount Carmel, and suffered the wrath of Jezebel for it.  God provided for Him, but he had to flee into the wilderness for 40 days.
 
Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all fasted for 40 days in service of God.
 
The church developed the practice of Lent, 40 days before Easter, to focus on the earthly ministry of Jesus, His suffering, denial, and state of humiliation for us.  Over the years it was corrupted into some simplistic and self-righteous practices.  The reformers mostly rejected this season because of those corruptions.  But we do also see some wisdom in focusing on the life of Christ in the calendar year:

 - His Incarnation at Christmas.  
 - His ministry and self-denial during Lent.  
 - His suffering and death at Good Friday.  
 - His resurrection at Easter.  

The key is to stay focused on Jesus Christ, more than on our own works of self-denial in this time.  We look to what He did centrally, and then ask ourselves:
Are we taking up our cross, denying ourselves, and following JC, as He calls us to do?
 
This reminds us of our need to confess our sins...

3/6/22

Invalidating Baptisms?

The Roman Catholic Church made news recently, when a bishop nullified thousands of baptisms done over 20 years by an Arizona priest, because he said "We baptize you," instead of "I baptize you..."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/catholic-priest-andres-arango-baptisms-invalid-phoenix-church/

It's technically correct that it should be I.  The pastor is a stand-in representative of Christ.  He does the baptism, not the church community.  Nor should the pastor use the "royal we" in a baptism.  It's like Communion, where the pastor stands behind the table, but it's the Lord's table - Jesus is feeding us, the pastor is the stand-in.

But no, the church shouldn't invalidate baptisms just because a pastor said "we" instead of I.  That's what happens when you over-do the importance of the visible church and tangible actions of the church.

It's easy to get thinking that the church is doing the baptizing and feeding - after all, we put the water in the bowl, the wine on the table, etc.  And it's easy for the pastor to get thinking that he's making it happen, too.  But I'm just saying words - the Spirit, Son, and Father is the real Doer of the sacraments.

It's kind of like a wedding in that.  The pastor doesn't actually marry people.  He officiates as they themselves marry.  

But it's NOT like a wedding since marriage is not a sacrament.  If it were, as Rome says, then you'd say God is doing the marrying.  But we say the couple themselves are taking vows and wedding.

Baptists tend to see sacraments as things God has given us to do, denying that He is acting in some special way in them.  But Reformed, Lutheran and Catholic all agree that God is acting in the sacraments, as we "do this in remembrance."

Lent

 Today is the beginning of Lent.

Here are some family devotional resources for the season from my denomination, from a few years back.

Uri Brito has a good perspective on the season, here.

I'm not a strong advocate for Lent that I push it hard, and have never done or been to an Ash Wednesday service.  But it's good to shape music and texts in worship to the season to an extent.

People should be free to disregard or incorporate Lenten aspects into their devotional life.

A Letter to a College Going/Gone Woke

I've been very disappointed with the response to Prof S______'s article, suspending him.

 

His rhetoric may have been too strong ("heresy"), but his concerns are valid.  My daughter has confirmed them with her own personal experience as a student at C________ for the last three years.  We will not be sending any of our other three children to you, unless we see significant change.

 

Faithful Christian institutions need to find a way to communicate their support for minorities, while rejecting the woke agenda behind "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" (DIE).  C________ has yet to do this.

 

We are talking past each other, too often. 

 

I realize that supporters of DIE are not all Marxist revolutionaries.  Most simply want to show they support minorities and are not racist.  But the DIE agenda goes far beyond that and needs to be rejected.

 

Opponents of DIE like me are not white supremacists or racists.  We simply want policy based on achievement, not on skin color, which DIE has obviously become.  Preferential treatment of minorities today is not a proper response to disparaging them in the past.  Your suspension of the adjunct criminal justice prof last year demonstrates your stance of preferential treatment for minorities.

 

Please reconsider your stance.  The Board of Regents needs to select a president willing to take a biblical stand on these issues, on C__________'s campus: including the poor and marginalized (Leviticus 19:34), and also not giving preferential treatment to the disadvantaged (Exodus 23:3).

 

Thank you for your consideration.